For the longest time, I (and the rest of the Blue Arkansas community) have been feeling unenthusiastic about our choices in the AR-01 Democratic primary. Almost all the candidates seem to have some serious flaws. Yesterday, I wrote about how important this race was because of how horrible the presumed front runner for the nomination is. Now though, it's become apparent that there is a really good option available to us who would make a great Democrat in Congress.
Meet Representative David Cook.
When I interviewed Representative Cook, I wasn't sure what to expect. But I walked away thrilled.Go ahead, watch the interview for yourself:
If you're looking for the most charismatic or polished candidate, Representative Cook clearly isn't your guy. If you want a true blue New Deal style Democrat though, you won't find a better candidate in this race. In the interview, and in his appearances across the district, Cook has distinguished himself by:
-Being the only candidate in this race to say he would have supported health care reform AND the public option (or Medicare buy in).
-Being the ONLY candidate in this race to endorse the Employee Free Choice Act.
-Proposing a "sin tax" on firms benefiting from the bailout and giving their executives huge bonuses.
-Stating that we need "a second round" of stimulus to get the economy moving.
No other candidate in this race has taken such bold stands. And people are taking notice too. At the second Democratic debate, when the question of EFCA came up and whether or not the candidates would support it, the line literally went, "No.", "No.", "No.", "No.", "No.", "Yes." That "Yes." was David Cook, and people sat up and listened as he expounded on all the good things unions have done for this country. And when the time for closing statements came, he knocked it out of the park with his talk about his humble roots and his pledge to fight "like a scrappy dog" for Arkansas families.
Now I'm not about to say that Representative Cook is as progressive as most of us on Daily Kos. He's not as liberal as those of us that run Blue Arkansas, and he's talked about that with us. For instance, he's very NRA oriented on guns, which you kind of have to be in this district. He's also a little unfamiliar with LGBT issues (he's from a small, rural district where that hasn't been a top priority), but his hearts in the right place-in our interview he stated plainly that he'd be for ENDA, saying he's against discrimination period, and (while he was shaky on the details at first), he did say he was for letting gay people serve in the military. This gay man was perfectly happy with those answers. Lord knows it's better than most candidates in Arkansas. What's more, he is the most progressive candidate in this race (so much so that he's impressing people around the district with his bold stands) and if we can get him elected in will be a positive shift for the district in a more progressive direction, one we can build on in the future.
But if you really want to get an idea who this guy is, read his response to Blue Arkansas' endorsement:
From the Office of David Cook for Congress
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Blue Arkansas for their hard work and their dedication to Democrats everywhere. While we won’t see eye to eye on every issue, I have found that the staff here are fair and more than willing to give credit where credit is due, even if they don’t completely agree with the person. For these reasons, and many others, I am proud to have the official endorsement of Blue Arkansas.
I want to specifically address something Blue Arkansas mentioned in their endorsement. They said it was my substance that made me different. I want to let you, the readers, know exactly what they meant by that. It isn’t my 5 years in the Navy. It isn’t my 6 years in the Legislature. It isn’t even my 32 years in education or my 3 college degrees. I am proud of all these things, but they aren’t what separate me from the other candidates. You know how, as parents, you read to your children? As a child, I read to my parents. I was born on the banks of the St. Francis River by midwife. Both of my parents were illiterate as neither had attended a day of school in their lives. My mother believed in America, she believed in Arkansas, and she believed that with a good education, a little luck, a little help and a whole lot of hard work that her children could have a better life than her. She made sure that her children went to school... but that wasn’t enough. We were dirt poor. From before I can remember, I went to school then came home and picked or chopped cotton till after dark. When I was 12 I got promoted to plowing behind a mule which was great because it meant I got a nickel raise. I worked hard to help support my family. I’ve put in spill-ways on rice levies with a shovel and a role of tar paper on my back. I’ve had to count the strips of bacon on my plate to make sure there was going to be enough food for the whole family to eat for the rest of the month.
I know what it’s like to be hungry. I know what it’s like to be poor. I know what it’s like to be sick and have no money for health care or medicine. And I understand that there are a lot of hard-working, good Arkansans that aren’t looking for a hand-out... No, they just need a hand-up so they can work their way to a better life for themselves and their children. I know that without the hand-ups I received in my life, I might still be making my bed on that old river bottom today. For me a hand-up was my high school coach helping me out with food money or clothes and letting me work it off on his farm, or my high school sweetheart’s family finding the money to buy me another pair of shoes when my only pair was stolen out of a gym locker at college.
These are more than just stories of my life. They have defined my life. These are WHY I spent 32 years as an educator. It’s WHY I went on to work as a Legislator. It’s WHY I voted to increase minimum wage, to reduce the grocery tax twice and to reduce health care cost for seniors. It’s WHY I worked so very hard to improve the educational environment for students and staff. And it’s WHY, when you send me to Congress, you can rest easy knowing that a man is there who gets it. You’ll know a real Arkansan with real Arkansas values is fighting like a scrappy dog to do everything he can to give you the hand-up you need for a better life.
That, my friends, is a REAL Democrat. And if you look at his top competition, you'll see why you have every reason to get involved. So come on, throw some change Cook's way on ActBlue. It's the difference between the best candidate we've got, and a host of Lieberdems...and one that's much worse...